Today is shot day. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I am used to them by now but there is still a level of anxiety and worry every time. The first one gave me a reaction I never want to feel again. I used my left arm and you basically inject into your bat wing. It stung because I did not wait long enough for the alcohol to dry. I got up and clipped the sharp, disposed of the syringe and other trash and grabbed an ice pack. I was warned by the visiting nurse that the medicine will hurt for a little bit. It takes a couple minutes for it to kick in but I can relate that pain to a Charlie horse cramp level. It's tolerable but it sucks and makes me hate this disease every shot day.
So the pain started and at first it was a dull ache. The ache turned into the cramping feeling that is common with the medicine, and the ice pack helps tremendously with this. The pain started to radiate down my arm and into my hand and fingers. This is not a common reaction. Within 5 minutes of the injection I had flushed and started to drip sweat like an overworked marathon runner. A cold pool would have been refreshing except I couldn't even stand up let alone swim. The next thing I noticed was my vision got blurry. I am not sure if this is common for a reaction or was due to my body over heating. I have some left eye optic damage and pushing my body causes blurred vision. I felt very weak and my heart was racing. Next, my ears started ringing and it got so loud I could barely hear the nurse speaking to me. I've never passed out before but I imagine this is what it would feel like. Things felt like they were closing in around me. It lasted 10 minutes but it felt like an hour. I am grateful that they send nurses for first injections.
I haven't had the problem since but I have also avoided injecting my arms. My thighs, hips and abdomen are in rotation. The thigh is the worst out of the three sites I use, and it's the cramping that is bad. You don't feel the injection itself. You can hardly feel anything in the hips. It is the smallest area I can use so I use it less often but I don't even get the cramping and those are the best days. There is a warning about chest pain reactions that usually start around a month after starting injections. I am a little over a month in and worried about this reaction. I've read comments that people thought they were having a heart attack. They say to wait for it to pass and it doesn't last longer than 10 minutes. If you have a heart attack you don't have 10 minutes. I suppose you should suspect the shot though if you are on it and get the pain. I have second stage hypertension as well so the chest pain reaction was my biggest fear coming into this. Maybe since I already got blessed with the first post-injection reaction I will be lucky enough to skip this one.
I drop things daily. I am not useless. I can still haul in wood pellets, dog food, pig and cat food. If I do it on a good day and rest the next one or two. My muscles weaken quickly and the longer I hold something heavy the more likely I am to drop it. Rummaging for change in my purse to make a purchase is annoying and I can always see the impatience painted across a cashiers face while I fumble for the right coin. Small objects are hard to manipulate. Overall I have decreased feeling from my shoulders to my finger tips in both arms, and my left side from my shoulder area to hip. I get the "hug" every evening, but it's just normal to me now. It's been 8 months since it started. I can't feel fine textures very well but I can feel bumps and dents. I don't feel surface cuts or burns, then it feels like pressure a little deeper. Fortunately I have not had to find out anything worse.
Copaxone image used from Medscape.com